[arm-allstar] Boot from Raspberry Pi 3B+ USB Stick

Fri Jan 1 18:34:26 EST 2021

Hi Jeff,

Okay about the stability issues with the existing installation.  Yes, the 
Repeater Builder USB audio fobs should work great.

I've gone through several iterations of installation methods, over the 
years.  My current best practice is to power the RPi boards directly from 
the repeater 13.8VDC power supply, which are high-quality switchers 
with full-time battery backup.  I use 5V3A DC-DC converters for the RPi 
boards, with 13.8VDC input.  These are the DC-DC converters I'm using. 
They have also operated flawlessly. I purchase 10 at the time.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/382800473521

....There is a caveat with these converters---make sure to set them to 
5VDC output before attaching to the RPi!

73, David KB4FXC

On Fri, 1 Jan 2021, Jeff Hochberg wrote:

> Hi David,
> 
> Thanks for your reply. That's a valid point about the power supply. We
> currently have a RPi 3B at our primary repeater site running Raspberry Pi
> OS and svxlink - as our EchoLink server.
> 
> It's been horribly unstable and I've questioned if it was the SD card or
> the power supply. We've replaced the SD card 3 times, yet we still continue
> to have stability issues. I applied updates to the Pi yesterday, rebooted
> it, and it will not come back online. We have an APC remote
> manageable power strip at the site, so I can power cycle the Pi remotely.
> I've tried power cycling it several times to no avail.
> 
> Right before you replied, I decided to abandon the USB stick boot effort
> and went back to using a SanDisk Ultra SD card.
> 
> Sorry to go sideways on the thread.... I'm new to AllStar and under the gun
> to get things going.
> 
> At this point, I've decided to build a new RPi (3B+) running the Hamvoip
> image, then enabling the EchoLink module. We do have an AllStar Node ID but
> have never used it before.
> 
> For what it's worth - we have a USB audio card from Repeater Builder - IRRC
> (C-Media chipset) that's connected to the svxlink box, then that goes to
> our RLC controller.
> 
> I have a USB sound card here (also with a C-Media chipset - I believe the
> exact same chipset), so I'm going through the setup process hoping that
> when I remove the USB sound card I'm using temporarily and replace it with
> the production USB sound card, that all will work well.
> 
> Does this sound like an OK approach? Are others using the Hamvoip image to
> connect into a controller as opposed to directly to a radio?
> 
> At this point, we're mostly concerned with getting EchoLink back online but
> would love to start offering AllStar as well, hence the switch from svxlink.
> 
> Thanks so much for responding on New Years Day!!!
> 
> Best Regards,
> 
> -JeffH
> 
> 
> ***************************************************
> Georgia Digital: http://dmr.georgiadigital.net/ipsc
> GeorgiaDMR.net on Groups.io: https://groups.io/g/GeorgiaDMR
> Appalachian Trail Golden Packet: https://atgp.groups.io/g/main
> ***************************************************
> 
> Jeff Hochberg
> W4JEW
> Atlanta, GA
> 404-304-4575
> jeff at w4jew.com
> 
> 
> On Fri, Jan 1, 2021 at 5:52 PM David McGough <kb4fxc at inttek.net> wrote:
> 
> >
> > Jeff,
> >
> > I don't recommend trying to use a USB storage device for booting and daily
> > operations for a RPi3B+.  If you're having SD card reliability issues and
> > you're using high quality SD cards, you've got a weak power supply
> > problem.
> >
> > I've got a whole fleet of RPi systems installed, all with Sandisk SD
> > cards, and zero issues. Many of these systems have been installed for
> > years.  Here are uptimes right this minute for 2 RPi3B+ boards sitting
> > 1700 feet up a tall TV tower; both using Sandisk 16GB SD cards:
> >
> > [root at repeater-146820 ~]# uptime
> >  17:47:22 up 337 days,  1:51,  1 user,  load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00
> >
> > [root at repeater-444850 ~]# uptime
> >  17:47:51 up 337 days,  1:45,  1 user,  load average: 0.00, 0.02, 0.00
> >
> > Here are the cards I'm using:
> >
> > https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07MR6K8PD/
> >
> >
> > 73, David KB4FXC
> >
> >
> >
> > On Fri, 1 Jan 2021, "Jeff Hochberg via ARM-allstar" wrote:
> >
> > > I'd much rather run the Pi off USB storage as I've found it to be much
> > more
> > > reliable than running off an SD card.
> > >
> > > Has anyone been able to install the RPI image then boot from a USB stick
> > > instead of SD card?
> > >
> > > I installed the 1.6 image (via dd) to both an SD card and a USB stick.
> > >
> > > I also installed Raspberry Pi OS to a DIFFERENT SD card and DIFFERENT USB
> > > stick. I was able to confirm that the Pi 3B+ will boot from the USB stick
> > > running Raspberry Pi OS.
> > >
> > > I found some articles that cover making a couple of changes to
> > cmdline.txt
> > > (change root to root=/devsda2) and /etc/fstab (change boot to /dev/sda1),
> > > but the Pi simply won't boot.
> > >
> > > I do see a flurry of disk activity on the USB stick at first, then the
> > > green LED on the Pi flashes 2 or 3 times in rapid succession, followed
> > by a
> > > delay, followed by flashing 2 or 3 times in rapid succession (and so on).
> > >
> > > Any thoughts?
> > >
> > > ***************************************************
> > > Georgia Digital: http://dmr.georgiadigital.net/ipsc
> > > GeorgiaDMR.net on Groups.io: https://groups.io/g/GeorgiaDMR
> > > Appalachian Trail Golden Packet: https://atgp.groups.io/g/main
> > > ***************************************************
> > >
> > > Jeff Hochberg
> > > W4JEW
> > > Atlanta, GA
> > > 404-304-4575
> > > jeff at w4jew.com
> > > _______________________________________________
> > >
> > > ARM-allstar mailing list
> > > ARM-allstar at hamvoip.org
> > > http://lists.hamvoip.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/arm-allstar
> > >
> > > Visit the BBB and RPi2/3/4 web page - http://hamvoip.org
> > >
> >
> >
> 